Safe and Sound
by LiveLaughLoveReadForever
Summary: Finnick has just returned home after the Hunger Games and has to face what had just happened. While he's crying on the beach a young girl comes and consoles him. And thus began their love story. One-shot. Not a song-fic.


Disclaimer; I don't own The Hunger Games.

(Note: In this story Finnick is 14 and Annie is 12 or 13-ish.)

Blood. Lots of blood.

That's what the newest victor, Finnick Odair, sees when closes his eyes. He sees blood and dead children. All of them dead because of the vicious Hunger Games. Finnick felt like hitting something but there was nothing else on the beach where he was sitting except sand and water.

So he did the next best thing.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him and jumped into the water swimming as fast as he could and splashing the water hard. Finally, he stopped swimming and made his way back to shore. Crawling onto the sand he flopped onto his back and gazed at the sky. The bright sun hurt Finnick's eyes but it was better than the blood and dead tributes he saw when he closed his eyes.

Nobody really wins when they play the Games, decided Finnick, Perhaps the lucky ones are the ones who died.

Half of Finnick wanted to jump into the ocean and drown himself but the other half knew that that would not only be spitting on the dead tributes' graves but it would hurt the people he cared about the most.  
Like his parents and his sister.

Finnick had learned about the horrors of the Capitol the moment he walked off the train. Sure, he had thought they were crazy, cruel, heartless people but when they dressed him and his district partner (she was only twelve) in the smallest outfits Finnick could have ever even imagined and then paraded them down the street...He knew that there was something missing in their brains. They were twelve and fourteen for Pete's sake! He felt sick thinking of his "outfit" that was basically a tiny tiny pair of underwear with a strange ocean twist to it. Luckily, they gave him a suit for the interviews.

It just wasn't fair. The Capitol took children, stuck them in an arena to fight to the death but not before parading them around in strange (and sometimes small) outfits. And of course the residents of the Capitol didn't see anything wrong with it. They thought it was fun. It was the most anticipated thing each year for them. It made him sick. And it made everyone else in Panem (minus the Capitol) sick as well.

Before Finnick knew what was happening a tear slipped out of his eye and onto his face. He quickly wiped away. But the tears kept flowing and eventually he stopped wiping them away and just sat on the beach and cried. He closed his eyes and put his head in his arms trying to block out the whole world. He cried for all the lives that were lost in each and every one of the Hunger Games in history. He cried for the lives that would be lost in future Games. He cried for the his sister who had to grow up in this horrible world. He cried for the older mentors who were still haunted by their Games. And he cried about Panem and how awful life was for everyone in the districts.

"It's alright," a voice said trying to console the boy.

Finnick lifted his head up to see a girl around the age for twelve or thirteen sitting next to him with a somewhat worried expression on her face. She had messy brown hair and beautiful sea-green eyes. After seeing her, Finnick reached to wipe his eyes but she caught his hands in hers.

"It's OK to cry. You've been through a lot," the girl said Of course, she recognized him. He was the winner of the most recent Hunger Games. He was obviously a very well-known face in many houses. That thought didn't make Finnick feel any better.

The girl frowned and added, "I won't tell anyone if that's what you're afraid of. I'm not a snitch."

Usually, Finnick would have denied that he had been crying but at the moment he just needed to be comforted and denying he had been crying wouldn't have gotten him any comfort. Finnick placed his head on her shoulder and continued crying.

"It's alright. Everything is going to be alright. You'll be alright. No one can hurt you now," she assured the victor, "Come morning light. You and I'll be safe and sound."

She continued to reassure him that everything was alright until he finally stopped crying.

"Why are comforting me? I've never done anything for you...have I?"

"No, but you don't have to owe someone something to help them, do you?" replied the girl.

Finnick paused thinking about what she said.

"I guess so. How did you know I was over here?" Finnick finally asked the small girl.

"Oh, Finnick, I was working with my parents over on the boat when I saw someone attacking the water. I decided someone was either very upset or they were really mad at the water."

Then Finnick did something that he hadn't done for real since he was reaped- and he thought he would never do again.

He smiled.

It wasn't just a smile, though. It was a real, genuine smile. It wasn't forced, half-hearted, or for the cameras but instead it was a real smile. It was small smile but was a smile all the same.

"What's your name?" Finnick asked.

"It's Annie...Annie Cresta." 


End file.
